Tag: employee engagement

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Engagement Marketing

Marketing Marketing – Step 5

Now you’re ready to develop your resulting plan (building on the previous four steps).

Your ultimate plan will be reflective of your situation, corporate culture, and internal politics.  To give you an idea of what might be included in such a plan, here are some sample activities I’ve seen used to promote marketing:

  • Host a department “open house” so others within the organization can get acquainted with marketing & its resources.  (I did this in my earlier banking career, and it worked to the point that bank staff recognized the marketing department as more than “just the guys who blow up balloons at the branch openings.”)
  • Invite key people from other departments to your staff meetings to learn what marketing is doing and vice-versa.
  • Distribute an internal marketing newsletter or report to let other staff know what’s happening; e.g., share the latest on market & consumer trends, competitive analysis, product usage, customer satisfaction results, etc. (whatever is not proprietary or confidential).
  • Conduct mini-seminars or brown-bag lunches on marketing — feature subjects such as product development, pricing, understanding consumer behavior, etc.  (Better yet if you can afford it, spring for lunch or refreshments … an excellent incentive to encourage attendance!)
  • Participate in new-employee orientation.  (At the very least, make sure whoever is in charge of orientation covers the organization’s marketing/branding efforts.)

Following the five steps covered in this series can help you increase marketing’s awareness & visibility, increase your perceived value, and strengthen marketing’s relationships with others in your organization.

But what if, despite these efforts, your situation doesn’t improve?  The you can adapt this strategy to market yourself somewhere else!

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing & Emotional Connections (Part 3)

The final segment in this series builds on my last post with questions that help employees feel connected to an organization through its mission.

In Gallup’s in-depth management study featured in the book First, Break All the Rules, researchers Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman discovered 12 key questions that measure an organization’s strength.  Many of the questions relate directly to employee engagement.  For example:

  • Do I know what is expected of me at work?
  • At work, do I have the opportunity to be what I do best every day?
  • Does my supervisor seem to care about me as a person?
  • At work, do my opinions seem to count?
  • Does the company mission make me feel my job is important?

Employee who can respond positively to these questions are likely to feel a strong connection to their organization (including their co-workers and customers).

Can you feel the love now?

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing & Emotional Connections (Part 2)

As a follow up to my last post on connecting with employees, here is how you can convey the message that your employees are part of something meaningful.

You need to be able to answer these questions:

  • What is your organization’s mission and purpose?
  • How can employees contribute to fulfilling the mission?
  • And how can they be made to feel part of something special?

If you need a model for this, just ask the people who work in nonprofit organizations.  They’re usually passionate about what they do, and it’s not for the money (especially since nonprofits don’t usually pay much.)  Most likely they are there for the mission.

Like nonprofits, some for-profits are able to effectively address these questions.  Otherwise, corporate America would have a lot of vacancies to fill!

So mission-fit and values are critical parts of the “big picture” in helping employees understand how & where they can find meaning in an organization (regardless of whether it’s in a nonprofit or for-profit).

More to come in my next post …

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing & Emotional Connections (Part 1)

Have you noticed the emotion quotient is big these days?  In marketing circles you hear lots of talk about getting consumers to “love” your brand … making an emotional connection with customers … and creating “passionate” brand evangelists, etc. (Can you feel the love?)

This is all well & good, as long as you start FIRST with your employees – because if they don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.  And you can’t buy employee engagement with just a paycheck.

As Stan Slapp so aptly put it: “Don’t try to use money as a means to emotionally connect with your employees … Bribery won’t do it.”

So, what will? To connect with employees, you need to create:

  • a sense of common purpose
  • a sense of belonging, and
  • a sense of being part of something special.

How? By constantly communicating and demonstrating that your employees are part of something meaningful.

To be continued …

[Note: I found Stan’s quote in the proceedings from the 2003 Compete through Service symposium hosted by Arizona State University’s Center for Services Leadership.  The proceedings from the 2003 and other symposiums are available from Avnet, Inc.]

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Corporate Culture Thought for the Day

Don’t you just love all those car ads promoting consumer pricing based on employee discounts?  (“You pay what our employees pay!”)

Treating customers like employees … an interesting concept.

Ponder this (if you dare)

Let’s take it beyond sales promotion for a moment.  Here’s an interesting question for you to consider: What would be the impact on your customers if they really were treated like employees of your organization?

The answer depends on your organization.  If you and your colleagues can respond positively, you’re among the fortunate.

If your answer is anything less than positive, my heart goes out to you (and your fellow employees and your customers).  In this case, if you’re able to explore other options, here’s my advice (with apologies to Lee Iacocca): If you can find a better deal with another employer, take it!

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Engagement Marketing

Another Reason Why Marketing & HR Need to Work Together

As a follow up to my recent post on internal marketing and employee recruitment & retention, check out Using Branding to Attract Talent, the latest article from The McKinsey Quarterly — it goes beyond internal marketing to branding as a recruiting tool.

In addition to the usual attributes of recruitment (benefits, opportunities for growth, etc.), McKinsey urges companies to focus on their “intangible, emotional associations” (e.g., “it’s fun to work here” … “we have a passionate and intelligent culture” … “there’s a strong team feeling”) for competitive differentiation.

Working for an organization with a strong brand, inside & out … it’s a no-brainer.  And how lucky for the folks in HR and Marketing (not to mention everyone else) who work there!

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing & Unemployment (or Buddy, Can You Spare a Job?)

Continuing the HR theme of my recent posts, I have several HR books in my library on employee recruitment & retention:

These were written just a few years ago (2000-2002) for a tight labor market when companies were scrambling to find & keep good employees (aka “talent”).  And internal marketing went hand-in-hand as a strategic tool for employee retention.

But what about now?

With today’s high unemployment, many firms are back to viewing employees as commodities … the attitude is “We don’t care as much about keeping you happy since you’re lucky to have a job!”  So is internal marketing still relevant?

Absolutely!  In our current economy, even though they’re not “competing” for employees, managers still need to be concerned with their care.  Why?  Because unemployment means reduced consumer spending — when fewer people are working, they spend less — which also means companies have to work harder to compete for customers.  And to attract and retain customers, you need trained & motivated staff (hello internal marketing!)

Internal marketing is more than just making employees feel appreciated … it’s also about making customers feel appreciated.  And no manager can afford to take that for granted, regardless of the labor market situation.

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Organizational Culture: Internal Customers (Part 3)

As mentioned in my last post, overall job satisfaction is affected by an employee’s relationships with managers & co-workers. And the quality of these relationships trickles down to the bottom line – you can’t build strong external (customer) relationships without strong internal (customer) relationships.

That’s why internal marketing considers employees “internal customers.” When employees take care of each others’ business service needs, they tend to do even better for customers.  In other words, internal customer service drives external customer services.

Who’s your customer?

Too often, customer relations training is focused only on staff with direct customer contact. But it applies to everyone – Purchasing has its internal customers; so does Human Resources, Information Systems, Operations, etc.

Think of it this way: if you’re not serving the ultimate customer (those who purchase your firm’s offerings), you’re serving someone who is … for example, the sales staff, customer service rep, call center staff, delivery person, store manager, etc.

To what extent does your organization acknowledge and serve its “internal customers?”

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Engagement Marketing

Organizational Culture: Assessment (Part 2)

My last post dealt with workplace courtesy and respect as part of organizational culture.

It reminds me of the time when I was fairly new to the working world. I remember hearing whispered references about certain managers and the sympathy given to new staff assigned to them:  “Too bad you have to work for that caustic s-o-b.”

This was the guy who would walk into the department without acknowledging anyone – no smile, no greeting – sharing only a scowl. Didn’t matter whether he passed one of his staff members, or a co-worker, or higher-up in the hallway (at least he was an equal opportunity s-o-b).

Maybe you’ve had the unfortunate experience to work with such a person, or know someone who has. So it should come as no surprise that research shows relationships with managers & co-workers impact overall job satisfaction.

The magic question

To assess the quality of your organization’s culture, all you need to do is ask one simple question: Would you refer a friend to work here?  It’s a loaded question, to be sure, but one whose answer will give you incredible insight into your firm’s culture.

More coming up in my next post …

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Organizational Culture: What Matters (Part 1)

I just finished reading the July issue of Presentations magazine and its feature an article on workplace etiquette … very timely given the recent “flip-flop flap” at the White House.

This post isn’t meant to bemoan a lack of manners in general or get into any fashion dispute. I just want to reinforce the importance of common courtesy and respect for others in the workplace.

Respect is a fundamental element of internal marketing. It includes treating people cordially, with civility and sincerity – not the drone scripted recitation of “Thank you for doing business with us … have a nice day” that you hear from some service providers.

But for many employees who truly care about their customers, sometimes the issue of professional courtesy can be a stretch. It’s hard to show respect for customers when workers don’t feel respected in their own organizations.

How employees (and customers, in turn) are treated is a reflection of corporate culture. What’s it like in your workplace?

More on this in my next post, including how to assess your organization’s culture …